Communication networks, in particular data communication networks, are in use in nearly every organization or company. Usually, these autonomous networks are closed units interconnecting only members to this organization or company. However, there may be situations in which it is desired or even needed to interconnect two or more of these autonomous communication networks. The prior art in such a situation is that network specialists manually interconnect these autonomous networks—a work which requires special information technology skills and tools and which is time consuming. In urgent scenarios like emergency management scenarios neither these network specialists nor the necessary time are available. Such scenarios are, for example, unplanned situations necessitating an immediate response, like natural disasters (e.g. wildfires, flooding, earthquakes), man made disasters (e.g. industrial accidents, chemical plant accidents or nuclear plant accidents), major traffic accidents (e.g. airplane crashes, railroad accidents, like train derailments, or naval vessel collisions), riots or terrorist attacks, etc. In these situations it may be necessary to quickly interconnect communication networks of a plurality of organizations like the police forces, fire fighters, national or regional civil protection units, medical rescue and support organizations, government agencies or even military forces.
It would thus be helpful if the users participating in such a scenario had the ability to control access to their own network and to the networks of other participating organizations instantly. This requires that:
a. the control can be achieved without the need to involve technical specialists e.g. network engineers to apply a reconfiguration to network equipment or network planner using a traditional network management system;
b. it must be easy and intuitive enough for a non-technical user to operate;
c. the desired effect can be achieved very rapidly i.e. from less than three user interactions e.g. mouse clicks and without having to reference other information e.g. look up addresses.
The object of the present invention is to provide a communication network structure and a method of interconnecting autonomous communication networks, as well as a computer program implementing such a method enabling a user to quickly and instantly interconnect autonomous communication networks without the need of special information technology skills.
The object directed to the network structure is achieved by the communication network structure in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
The communication network structure according to embodiments of the invention is preferably a data communication network structure. It comprises a plurality of autonomous communication networks, in particular data communication networks, wherein each autonomous communication network comprises at least one network node, wherein said at least one node of each communication network is connected or connectable to a common gateway, and wherein said common gateway is designed to selectively connect at least two of said nodes in order to provide intercommunication ability between the related communication networks.
In a preferred embodiment of the communication network structure, the gateway is designed to have a plurality of predefined and preset configurations of inter-node connections and to allow a user to directly select and activate a preset configuration from the plurality of predefined and preset configurations.
In a further preferred embodiment of the communication network structure, the gateway is designed to allow a user to individually select and interconnect two or more network nodes from the plurality of autonomous communication networks.
It is also advantageous when the common gateway comprises at least one router element to which the nodes of the autonomous communication networks are selectively connected or connectable.
The object directed to the method of interconnecting autonomous communication networks is solved by embodiments of the invention.
This method, which is carried out in a communication network structure, comprises the steps of:
a) selecting networks or network nodes to be interconnected from a group or a list of available networks or network nodes or selecting a preset configuration of inter-node connections;
b) activating an interconnection between the selected networks or network nodes by creating an access-list using the IP-addresses defined for each node; and
c) applying the access-list on a router element provided in the gateway, thus connecting the nodes/networks to each other.
Preferably, this method is implemented in a computer program which is running on a computer provided in the communication network structure, preferably in the gateway.
The basic idea of the invention is to provide a gateway between the autonomous communication networks potentially to be interconnected, and to provide a method, e.g. implemented in a computer program, enabling a user to quickly and instantly activate an interconnection between selected ones of the autonomous networks. The preferred solution is to offer to the user a graphic user interface on a computer display on which the user can establish the desired connections by one or more selection clicks (selecting one or more networks to be interconnected) and by one activation click activating the interconnection(s). The same procedure can be carried out for de-activating the connection(s) to one or more of the autonomous communication networks by selecting the network(s) to be disconnected and by a subsequent de-activation click.
Although the networks shown, described and defined in this document have a node, the invention is not delimited to networks of star topology. The invention may also be applied to other network topologies, e.g. ring topologies or bus topologies, having a dedicated node.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.